Transparent pillar or supported candles which release fragrances on use and which are fabricated from materials other than paraffin wax are known in the prior art and are commercially desirable. Such candles fabricated using non-aqueous ester-terminated polyamide resins are disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,111,055, 6,242,509 and 6,214,063; U.S. patent application Ser. No. 2001/0029696 published on Oct. 18, 2001, the U.S. Patents and patent application hereby incorporated by reference; and PCT Application WO 00/73408 A1. However, all of the aforementioned disclosures require the use of the hydrocarbon, “mineral oil” as a solvent therefor or as included as a substantial part of the solvent which is necessary for the operation of the candle.
In addition, candles which release fragrance on use and which contain vegetable-based materials such as soy derivatives for all or a substantial portion of their structures are also commercially desirable and are known in the prior art, for example, the candles disclosed in the ECOWAX™ website, by NGI, Inc., P.O. Box 528097, Chicago, Ill. 60652-8097, and in U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,063,144, 6,086,644, and U.S. Published Patent Application 2001/0013195 published on Aug. 16, 2001, these patents and application hereby incorporated by reference. However, the aforementioned prior art does not disclose or suggest, transparent substantially rigid gel candles having structures that include vegetable-based solvents that are substantially hydrocarbon-free and substantially stearic acid free.
It is well known to those having ordinary skill in the art that inclusion of hydrocarbons such as mineral oil and paraffin wax, as well as stearic acid, either as a structural component and/or as a solvent component gives rise to emission of non-desirable substances into the environment surrounding the candle on use thereof.
Accordingly, a need exists for a transparent, substantially hydrocarbon-free, substantially stearic acid-free and syneresis-free candle article which, on use, releases to the environment surrounding the candle, one or more system-compatible functional compositions and which has, for its structure, a vegetable-based solvent admixed with an environmentally-acceptable and useful resin such as an ester-terminated polyamide or a tertiary amide-terminated polyamide.